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Week in Apple: post-Macworld hangover edition

This year's Macworld Expo is over and, despite there being no Apple present, …

Our top Apple news this week was dominated by news out of the 2010 Macworld Expo. It turns out that Apple's absence didn't really hold back a great conference and, in fact, might have helped it. In addition to the Expo, Steve Jobs kept railing on Flash, the App Store got a little cleaner, and we polled users on their 3G data usage. Read on for the roundup:

USB power outlet, iPhone Universal Remote impress at Macworld: Fastmac isn't just a third-party battery company anymore. The accessory maker is about to come out with a USB wall outlet solution that we want to put all over our own houses, plus an improvement on its old iPhone battery extender that lets you control anything via a built-in infrared blaster. We checked out both during this year's Macworld Expo.

Leather iPhone gloves warm hands, hearts at Macworld: Our coolest discovery out of Macworld 2010 was leather nanotechnology. Confused? One company has not only tapped a deprived market for touchscreen gloves, it has developed a new technology that even has the US Department of Defense interested. We chatted with the CEO to find out more.

iPhone hardware and OS beat Nexus One for 3D performance: Though the iPhone's processor is clocked much slower than the blazing fast 1GHz Snapdragon in the Google Nexus One, its combination of GPU hardware and mature SDK give it a significant performance edge in 3D gaming according to test results from one developer.

Apple putting the kibosh on soft-core porn app screenshots: Ostensibly addressing complaints that the App Store is freely browsable despite Parental Controls limits, Apple is asking developers to make sure none of the screenshots for their apps contain "objectionable material." For some apps, that might be nearly impossible.

Early MacBooks eligible for free hard drive replacement: In response to complaints lodged two years ago, Apple has launched a "MacBook Repair Extension Program for Hard Drive Issues" that will allow some MacBook owners to receive free hard drive repairs for their computers, or compensation for repairs they undertook themselves.

Macworld a great time despite—or because of—Apple's absence: Against all odds, the 2010 Macworld Expo was a resounding success, bringing in far more attendees than observers, the media, and even vendors expected. Vendors who pulled out this year expressed regret in not getting on board, and some even believed the signal-to-noise ratio was improved thanks to Apple's absence. Don't forget to check out our 2010 Macworld photo gallery as well.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui